IXXX PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



" I should have imagined that the advocates of this system of 

 uniformity might have quoted the example of Linnaeus ; but he 

 had two terminations for the Geometrce, — aria and ata, — and as 

 the objectors of the present day have thought fit to change all his 

 fl/«'s into rtWa's, not even being aroused from the folly of their 

 theory by the fact of Prunala of Linnaeus becoming thereby a 

 dropped name, there being already a Prunaria, they cannot quote 

 his example as any argument on their side; and it does not appear 

 that Linnaeus laid down any rules on this subject; he merely gave 

 to his Geometrce with pectinated antennae the termination aria, — 

 to those witli simple antennae the termination ata, — to the Pyrales 

 the termination alis, — to the Tortrices the termination ana, — and 

 to the T'lnece the termination ella ; but that he intended these 

 rules to be so rigid that an insect named as a Thiea should, on 

 being found to be a Tortrix, change its termination, we are surely 

 not warranted to believe. Why should not Pomonclla and Tu~ 

 rionella retain the names that Linnaeus gave them ? Moreover, if 

 Turiunella becomes — as a Tortrix — Turiona?ja, what becomes of 

 its parasite, Ichneumon T wnouellce ? Besides the last innovation, 

 the change of the atas, into aria's has been of such recent occur- 

 rence, that if tamely submitted to as an inevitable infliction, it will 

 probably tempt some future writer to give uniform terminations 

 to the Noctuce or other groups of the Lepidoptera. 



" The second fundamental law of Entomological nomenclature 

 is — 



" IL No two species in the same genus should bear the same 

 specific name. 



*' I am told this is a truism, and needs no argument; but unless 

 it is adopted, and the first primary law only is considered, we 

 should be obliged to restore to (Depressaria) Hypericella, Hbn., 

 the older naxne oi Liturella, Hbn., there being aXveaAy s. Litiirella, 

 W. v., in the genus Depressaria : in fact, this law is the only ad- 

 missible exception to the first law. 



" Since writing the above, my attention has been called to a 

 ' Report on the Laws of Zoological Nomenclature,' published in 

 the " Proceedings of the British Association,' in 1842, and I find 

 that the following rules were there laid down. 



*' 1. The name originally given by the founder of a group or 

 the describer of a species should be permanently retained, to the 

 exclusion of all subsequent synonyms (with the exceptions about 

 to be noticed). 



" 2. The binomial nomenclature having originated with Linnaeus, 



